Mana, the Left and the battle for Auckland's future

With less than three months until the Auckland
Council elections and with the results of the Ikaroa-Rawhiti
by-election fresh in our minds it's time to consider how the
left intervenes in the city council elections this year.

The potential of John Minto's mayoral campaign is to
present a set of realistic policies that challenge the
neo-liberal status quo in Auckland. Policies that speak to
the need for affordable housing, the need for a living wage
and the need for free public transport.

From the roaring
surf of Piha where locals fight seabed mining to the rage in
the streets of Glen Innes against gentrification can the
left present a credible alternative to the vultures who run
our city and country today?

The question the left must ask
itself in the next few months is how does this campaign
reach every underpaid, overworked, fed up with debt and
traffic jams and casinos and junkets for the big wigs in
this city?

What do we need to do to challenge Len Brown
and John Key from the city to the sea? Join us Thursday with
John Minto as we discuss the upcoming campaign to take back
our city for the millions, not the millionaires.

Mana, the
Left and the battle for Auckland's future - A Socialist
Aotearoa Forum

John Minto will speak alongside a panel of
other local campaigners.When: 7.30pm, Thursday 4
JulyWhere: Unite Union, 6a Western Springs Road,
Kingsland.Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/events/289502527863189/

Upcoming
gig: Secret Donations Scandal rocks Minto for Mayor
campaignJohn Minto's campaign for Mayor needs cash for
billboards and pamphlets. So we've roped in the Mana
Movements own Envioso, pulled in some radical folk punkers
from Rotorua, The Prophet Motive and filled out the line up
with Aotearoa's own Tom Morello - Myth of Democracy. Paul
Brown, Scotland's finest folk export to Aotearoa joins the
bill as well to warm up the audience with only the finest
revolutionary anthems. $10 on the door and a cash bar and
BBQ available all night.

We’re all Brazilian in this
StruggleSaturday the 22nd of June was a typical winter
Auckland afternoon with beautiful blue skies, frequent
showers, howling wind, overcast conditions, and at moments a
combination of all four. To be quite honest it felt pretty
far removed from the images we are used to seeing of
beaches, thongs, football, and parties that have become the
western perception of Brazil. But on this typically Auckland
day the Brazilian community of Auckland came out in force to
demonstrate their anger and frustrations against the ongoing
corruption, exploitation, and police brutality that has come
to define the capitalist legacy of Latin America’s largest
nation, and future torch bearer for corporate mega events,
the World Cup and of course the financial black hole that is
the Olympic
Games.http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/were-all-brazilian-in-this-struggle.html

Behind
the Silicon CurtainLinda M. an IT professional and SA
member discusses the recent revelations about US internet
spying. Peaceful revolution ultimately brought down the
Stalinist surveillance states of Eastern Europe and tore
down the Iron Curtain. Now the challenge is to pull down the
Silicon
Curtain.http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/behind-silicon-curtain.html

Harry
- Like a P pipe in the dark?TV cop show Harry lit up the
underbelly of the "P" or methamphetamine trade in Auckland
like a "P" pipe in the dark. Brightly illuminating the
trials police and criminals face in their daily war with
each other but obscuring the wider social reality in which
the pipe gets
lit.http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/harry-like-p-pipe-in-dark.html

Brazilian
Revolution - The writing's on the wallIt is hard to
predict when something will ignite mass mobilisations but
one thing's certain, the struggle in Brazil is the same one
we face here in Aotearoa. The parallels are obvious; a
rising cost of living, stagnating wages, increasinging
unemployment, structural poverty and marginalisation from
society, a non functioning public transport system, a
history of land theft and the terrorising of indigenous
communities. In neighbourhoods like Glen Innes we see people
being evicted from their homes to make way for the rich. You
only have to look at the National Party to see a corrupt
government that funds sports events instead of deal with
social problems. Our common enemy is neo-liberal
capitalism.http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/brazilian-revolution-writings-on-wall.html

The quashing of the convictions of Teina Pora for the rape and murder of Susan Burdett in 1992 has shone a spotlight once again on a major gap in the New Zealand justice system.

To all intents and purposes, access by New Zealanders to the Privy Council has now been closed. Yet the number of times in recent years when the Privy Council has quashed the findings of New Zealand courts has demonstrated that we are regularly(a) jailing the wrong person or(b) arriving at guilty verdicts on grounds sufficiently flawed as to raise serious doubts that a miscarriage of justice has occurred. More>>

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New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters has announced his intention to stand in the Northland by-election, citing his own links to the electorate and ongoing neglect of the region by central government. More>>